High temperatures and climate change are posing a challenge to hills stations like Dharamsala located in the Mid-Himalayan region.

The people associated with the tourism industry said the temperature in Dharamsala region is rising exponentially, especially in summers. This would hit the tourism industry.

Sanjay, who runs a hotel in Dharamsala, said that this year, the temperature in the region has soared to 31°C in April itself. It is expected to rise in the coming months. Such high temperatures in lower Dharamsala region would discourage tourists from coming to the region, he said.

Sanjay, who is also former scientist from Geological Survey of India, said that the high temperatures in the region would also lead to early and fast melting of snow in the Dhauladhar mountain ranges and could create drinking and irrigation water crises in the region.

It is ironical that policy makers in the state are not discussing the implementation of measures to tackle the impact of climate change on the livelihood of people in the Mid-Himalayan region, he said.

Dalip Kumar, another hotelier from the city, said that Dharamsala — at one time — was considered the wettest place in the country. The beauty of the hill station was that whenever the temperatures in the region used to touch 30°C, it used to rain and the temperature used to come down. The rain patterns in the region were caused by snow in the Dhauladhar mountain range.

However, for past few years, snow and rain in the region have become scanty, resulting in high temperatures during summers, he said.

Dalip Kumar said that many tourists coming to the area were complaining of high temperatures during summers, especially in the lower Dharamsala region. Increased construction in the area and reduced green belt might also be responsible for high temperatures in the region.

People associated with the tourism industry said that the government should reinvent tourism in the Mid-Himalayan region of Himachal as the livelihood of thousands of people is associated with it. The Mid-Himalayan hills stations of the state like Dharamsala, Palampur and Dalhousie should have to offer more than just natural beauty to attract tourists, they said.

A study by a group of scientists from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal has revealed that there has been a 20 per cent reduction in glaciers in the Dhauladhar mountain range. They had also revealed that glacial lakes in Dhauladhar had increased by 47 per cent.

Despite clear impact of climate change on the livelihood of people in the Mid-Himalayan region, no policy has been put into place to tackle the problem.